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Economy

6.6 Million Americans Applied For Unemployment Last Week

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6,648,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits in the last week of March as the coronavirus pandemic threatens the sustainability of businesses across the country, according to a report released by the Labor Department Thursday.

“Similar to last week’s unemployment claims numbers, today’s report reflects the sacrifices American workers are making for their families, neighbors, and country in order to ‘slow the spread.’ The Administration continues to act quickly to address this impact on American workers,” Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia said in a statement Thursday.

The statement continued, “That includes a rule the Labor Department adopted yesterday to implement the paid leave provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, and the Department’s work with the States to make available the enhanced unemployment benefits provided in the CARES Act, which the President signed last week. That legislation also contains significant incentives for businesses to retain workers and continue paying them, which will put businesses and workers in a better position to resume work and re-boot the economy once the virus is contained.”

In the previous week, there were 3,341,000 claims. The latest number of jobless Americans marks the “highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the history of the seasonally adjusted series,” according to the report.

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Economy

White House announced $6 billion student loan forgiveness for 78,000 public service workers

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United States Congress

The White House recently announced a $6 billion loan forgiveness program. Nurses, teachers and firefighters are among the 78,000 public service workers who will qualify. Fox Business reports:

Due to fixes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, workers that never received forgiveness are now having their debts partially forgiven or canceled. Only about 7,000 public service borrowers received forgiveness prior to the Biden Administration, now that total hovers closer to 870,000, the announcement said.

“Today’s announcement comes on top of the significant progress we’ve achieved for students and student loan borrowers in the past few years,” the announcement stated. “This includes: providing the largest increases in Pell Grants in over a decade to help families who earn less than roughly $60,000 a year; fixing Income-Driven Repayment plans so borrowers in repayment for years get the relief they earned; and creating the most generous Income-Driven Repayment plan in history – the SAVE plan.”

However, there is concern over fairness that older generations are still paying off student loans and could risk losing Social Security. A group of representatives wrote a letter to Congress, hoping to address the issue of seniors still paying down student loans. Currently, under the Treasury Offset Program (TOP), the government can collect funds, such as tax refunds and Social Security, to pay outstanding student loan balances, reports Fox Business.

“Under the TOP, the federal government can withhold up to 15 percent of monthly Social Security or disability benefits for defaulted student loans,” the lawmakers explained in their letter.

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